'Dragon Quest XI' Review: One Of The Best Role-Playing Games Ever Made

Your path as the Luminary in 'Dragon Quest XI' is a long and surprising one.

Credit: Square Enix

While many outside of Japan know of the Final Fantasy series, the Dragon Quest games that pre-date and inspire it are somewhat unknown. Obviously, in Japan, the Dragon Quest series is incredibly popular but not so much in the West. Well, Dragon Quest XI may change all that.

The premise in Dragon Quest XI has you born as the eponymous hero of legend, the Luminary. Meant to banish a forthcoming darkness, your quest starts as you have to travel to Heliodor to meet King Carnelian.

The problem I now have here is to continue with the story would be to spoil much of it. While I am not personally bothered by spoilers, in this instance they would definitely diminish what the game tries to accomplish in a narrative sense.

This is because when I spoke with Yuji Horii about the game and the Dragon Quest series as a whole, one of the biggest points he raised about storytelling was how much he liked surprises. The entirety of Dragon Quest XI is replete with massive, awesome and often entirely heart-breaking twists. So he is clearly true to his word and I am subsequently wary of spoilers in this instance.

As storytelling is such a big part of Dragon Quest's lineage, the localization is a hugely important aspect of making these games work and often why they have failed to gain traction outside of Japan. In the case of Dragon Quest XI though, Square Enix has done a very good job. To understand what I mean here, this is not straightforward translation work. Many of the jokes and references are particularly cultural in a Japanese sense, so bringing this Westward in a way that stays true to all of that is a huge challenge.

Much of the humor and characterization has been brought over though and the voice acting is very well done, with Alex Norton as Rab being a real standout. However, I would still very much love a Japanese audio DLC at some point, that retains all the original names, as that would be fascinating to play through after hearing the English localization.

You also have all manner of other small stories you encounter over the course of the game, from tales of mermaids to hard-nosed fighters looking after orphans. There is a great deal of variety in terms of how your quest develops but what makes Dragon Quest XI special is how it plays.

Your party in 'Dragon Quest XI' has a wide and varied array of abilities and skills.

Credit: Square Enix

Now, when you start the game it feels initially clumsy and very old-fashioned. If you are new to these types of games, then you might even find it just plain strange. However, the pacing is such that you are slowly introduced to various mechanics and options, often through the addition of members to your party. So the introduction to the world of Dragon Quest XI is definitely a gentle and thoughtful one.

As your party grows though, so does the menu of complexity regarding the attacks and spells you have at your disposal.

Navigating the world is straightforward enough, with enemies wandering around. Once you come into contact with an enemy, you then enter into a turn-based battle.

The starting setup for attacks is entirely automatic and can be changed in the Tactics menu. So if you don't want to delve too far into the game's guts, you don't have to. You also have varying options available depending on how you want each of the party members to fight. Do you want a full-on aggressive fighter or a more tactical magician? It’s up to you. That said, there is also a manual option.

If you set each character in your party to “Follow Orders”, you can manually choose what attacks, spells, abilities and other actions yourself. Personally, I would recommend you do this as soon as you start, especially if you are familiar with traditional role-playing games such as this.

Once you begin to command each of your party and see them level up, you can assign skill points in the Character Builder. This unlocks attacks as well as offering one time bonuses to things like attack strength and magical capacity.

While there is fast travel between locations in the game, there are fixed save points across the world. These are either in churches in the various towns you visit or at statues dotted around the landscape.

The World Tree is at the heart of Erdrea and is a key location in your quest.

Credit: Square Enix

However, to replenish your health and magic you need to rest for the night, either at an inn or at a campsite. The latter often have statues for saving and while around the campfire, you have access to things like the Fun Sized Forge and traveling salesman.

The Fun Sized Forge is where you can build your own armor, weapons and other accessories. Each item has to be bashed into existence via a mini-game and is built from the requisite materials you find dotted around the world. You can also buy armor, weapons and items at the various towns in the game but those obviously cost money.

The result of this is that you explore the world of Erdrea looking for items and materials, as well as picking fights to power up your characters. While there is an element of grinding, a lot of that is down to how you want to proceed.

In that, areas have varying enemy types and picking one with stronger enemies that deal out more experience points is often the best way to go. However, this is not at all essential, as the standard playthrough will net you enough experience to cause more than enough trouble to the minions of darkness.

To be fair though, even the grinding is actually fun and that is mostly down to the layout of the party members you have, especially if you are manually controlling their actions.

While all of this will probably sound familiar to fans of the genre, that’s the point really. Dragon Quest XI is not only a traditional role-playing game but it is also the latest installment in a series that practically created this type of game in the first place. Once you get into the groove of how it works, all of the disparate facets fall into place and you are left with an incredibly well-crafted game.

That’s the main point here, this is a game that exemplifies craftsmanship. Not in a haughty artistic sense but in a real and palpable way. That the functional implementation of a game matters a great deal, as well as understanding that games are fundamentally meant to be played.

Overall, Dragon Quest XI is one of the best role-playing games I have ever played. Not only is it wonderfully well-made and great fun but it also has a fantastic story with lovable characters created by Akira Toriyama and a beautiful musical score by the legendary Koichi Sugiyama. While it is a massive and overly traditional role-playing game, do not let these elements dissuade you from trying it out. Stick with it and your patience will be hugely rewarded.

Your path as the Luminary in 'Dragon Quest XI' is a long and surprising one.

Credit: Square Enix

While many outside of Japan know of the Final Fantasy series, the Dragon Quest games that pre-date and inspire it are somewhat unknown. Obviously, in Japan, the Dragon Quest series is incredibly popular but not so much in the West. Well, Dragon Quest XI may change all that.

The premise in Dragon Quest XI has you born as the eponymous hero of legend, the Luminary. Meant to banish a forthcoming darkness, your quest starts as you have to travel to Heliodor to meet King Carnelian.

The problem I now have here is to continue with the story would be to spoil much of it. While I am not personally bothered by spoilers, in this instance they would definitely diminish what the game tries to accomplish in a narrative sense.

This is because when I spoke with Yuji Horii about the game and the Dragon Quest series as a whole, one of the biggest points he raised about storytelling was how much he liked surprises. The entirety of Dragon Quest XI is replete with massive, awesome and often entirely heart-breaking twists. So he is clearly true to his word and I am subsequently wary of spoilers in this instance.

As storytelling is such a big part of Dragon Quest's lineage, the localization is a hugely important aspect of making these games work and often why they have failed to gain traction outside of Japan. In the case of Dragon Quest XI though, Square Enix has done a very good job. To understand what I mean here, this is not straightforward translation work. Many of the jokes and references are particularly cultural in a Japanese sense, so bringing this Westward in a way that stays true to all of that is a huge challenge.

Much of the humor and characterization has been brought over though and the voice acting is very well done, with Alex Norton as Rab being a real standout. However, I would still very much love a Japanese audio DLC at some point, that retains all the original names, as that would be fascinating to play through after hearing the English localization.

You also have all manner of other small stories you encounter over the course of the game, from tales of mermaids to hard-nosed fighters looking after orphans. There is a great deal of variety in terms of how your quest develops but what makes Dragon Quest XI special is how it plays.

Your party in 'Dragon Quest XI' has a wide and varied array of abilities and skills.

Credit: Square Enix

Now, when you start the game it feels initially clumsy and very old-fashioned. If you are new to these types of games, then you might even find it just plain strange. However, the pacing is such that you are slowly introduced to various mechanics and options, often through the addition of members to your party. So the introduction to the world of Dragon Quest XI is definitely a gentle and thoughtful one.

As your party grows though, so does the menu of complexity regarding the attacks and spells you have at your disposal.

Navigating the world is straightforward enough, with enemies wandering around. Once you come into contact with an enemy, you then enter into a turn-based battle.

The starting setup for attacks is entirely automatic and can be changed in the Tactics menu. So if you don't want to delve too far into the game's guts, you don't have to. You also have varying options available depending on how you want each of the party members to fight. Do you want a full-on aggressive fighter or a more tactical magician? It’s up to you. That said, there is also a manual option.

If you set each character in your party to “Follow Orders”, you can manually choose what attacks, spells, abilities and other actions yourself. Personally, I would recommend you do this as soon as you start, especially if you are familiar with traditional role-playing games such as this.

Once you begin to command each of your party and see them level up, you can assign skill points in the Character Builder. This unlocks attacks as well as offering one time bonuses to things like attack strength and magical capacity.

While there is fast travel between locations in the game, there are fixed save points across the world. These are either in churches in the various towns you visit or at statues dotted around the landscape.

The World Tree is at the heart of Erdrea and is a key location in your quest.

Credit: Square Enix

However, to replenish your health and magic you need to rest for the night, either at an inn or at a campsite. The latter often have statues for saving and while around the campfire, you have access to things like the Fun Sized Forge and traveling salesman.

The Fun Sized Forge is where you can build your own armor, weapons and other accessories. Each item has to be bashed into existence via a mini-game and is built from the requisite materials you find dotted around the world. You can also buy armor, weapons and items at the various towns in the game but those obviously cost money.

The result of this is that you explore the world of Erdrea looking for items and materials, as well as picking fights to power up your characters. While there is an element of grinding, a lot of that is down to how you want to proceed.

In that, areas have varying enemy types and picking one with stronger enemies that deal out more experience points is often the best way to go. However, this is not at all essential, as the standard playthrough will net you enough experience to cause more than enough trouble to the minions of darkness.

To be fair though, even the grinding is actually fun and that is mostly down to the layout of the party members you have, especially if you are manually controlling their actions.

While all of this will probably sound familiar to fans of the genre, that’s the point really. Dragon Quest XI is not only a traditional role-playing game but it is also the latest installment in a series that practically created this type of game in the first place. Once you get into the groove of how it works, all of the disparate facets fall into place and you are left with an incredibly well-crafted game.

That’s the main point here, this is a game that exemplifies craftsmanship. Not in a haughty artistic sense but in a real and palpable way. That the functional implementation of a game matters a great deal, as well as understanding that games are fundamentally meant to be played.

Overall, Dragon Quest XI is one of the best role-playing games I have ever played. Not only is it wonderfully well-made and great fun but it also has a fantastic story with lovable characters created by Akira Toriyama and a beautiful musical score by the legendary Koichi Sugiyama. While it is a massive and overly traditional role-playing game, do not let these elements dissuade you from trying it out. Stick with it and your patience will be hugely rewarded.